ProtoAge
by HobTheRobot
Summary: A challenge, that is really all I can do, I couldn't finish a real story to save my life. Alex ends up in the Dragon Age world and goes off to see history unfold.


Dragon Age: Prototype

Okay, I thought it would be interesting to see how Alex would do in Dragon Age, he could take most humans easily, but there are plenty of ways for him to be in danger, so let's see how this goes.

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><p>Alex Mercer, the most dangerous being on Earth, was minding his own business, just jumping from one Chicago rooftop to another, it had been thirty years since the Manhattan outbreak. He wasn't really concerned about anyone seeing him, it was pretty dark out, he really felt it would be good to do something to keep his mind off of the fact that, as of four days ago, there wasn't a single person on the planet he could trust, no one who would see something other then a viral monster if they knew what he was, so here he was standing on a forty floor buildings roof looking out over Lake Michigan.<p>

"Five years to deal with the direct results of the outbreak, another two to deal with Heller, six more to finish off Blackwatch and deal with Pariah." Alex glanced at an eagle perched on a rooftop a block away. "Can't fly yet, no bird on Earth has got the right sort of wings, and I'm still too heavy, have to work on that."

Seven years earlier Dana had suggested he get a hobby, he hadn't really seen the point but he tried anyway. At first nothing seemed to hold his interest, but then he remembered how much he enjoyed flying stolen Blackwatch helicopters, Dana thought he meant he was going to start stealing aircraft again when he mentioned it, she calmed down when he told her about eating the crow after the nuke went off, for a few moments he was light enough to fly under his own power, now he wondered if he could find a way to do it without being reduced to a puddle first. He had consumed various types of birds since then, but he still couldn't fly, he hadn't given up on it, but he was taking a break for the time being.

"Wonder what would happen if I ate a shark?" Alex still couldn't swim, again he was just too heavy. "Maybe a modification to armor, like a submarine. Ha, that would look weird I bet." Alex sighed and dropped off the edge of the building, he didn't really care if anyone saw him land, not like there was anything they could do about it. The next thing he knew there was a flash of light, he remembered seeing the sky seem to crack, the light was definitely lightning, the bolt struck him right in the chest, the heat was the last thing he remembered before blacking out.

"Argh! Alright, I guess I can add the sky to the list of things that hate me. That hurt, a lot." Alex pushed himself to his feet. "So anyone wondering how I survived that?" He looked around expecting to see a crowd of curious vultures taking pleasure in the fact that something horrible had happened to someone else, what he saw were trees, some grass, a dirt road, a few flowers here and there, but not a human anywhere, or the city he should have been in for that matter. "Alright, so instead of frying me like it would a human, lightning teleports me? Okay, sure. Why not? It's not like that's any stranger then what I am to begin with, definitely not the weirdest thing I've ever seen. So now where am I?"

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><p>Two hours of uninterrupted walking did not lead Alex anywhere worth noting, though if he was reading the signs right there should be a village not far from where he was now. Alex found that he wasn't all that surprised when the bandits, yes, honest to whatever power was in charge of this sort of thing, bandits showed up.<p>

"So, can I help you?" Alex smirked at the shocked looks on their faces when he said that.

The leader recovered first. "Don't care what you said friend, but you'd better hand over any money or other valuables you're carrying."

Alex was a little annoyed, it seemed his jab at them before had confused them because they didn't understand what he said. "In retrospect I guess I should have expected that, couldn't read those damned signs at all."

"I don't care what you're babbling about, just hand over your money and maybe we won't kill you." The leader of the little group was losing his patience fast. When Alex just looked even more thoughtful then before that was the last straw. "Alright, kill this jerk, we'll just take everything after he's dead!"

One of the two warriors of the group charged forward, he swung his sword down on his target, the blade met nothing but air. Alex had casually stepped to the side, he then planted one fist in the slightly taller mans' stomach, lifted him into the air, and ripped him in half. The remaining bandits just stared in horror as their former fellow goon disintegrated into the creature before them.

"Okay, that's better. Can you understand me now?" By the looks on their faces it was clear they did. "Good, now let's see what else you have to teach me." Alex let an insane grin sneak onto his face, it had been a long time since he had a good skirmish to keep his mind off things.

One of the rogues jumped over Alex and attempted to stab him in the back, while one of the other two rushed forward while smearing a substance on his blades which caused them to burst into flames. Alex let the first two blade pass straight through him, it wasn't like it really hurt, he then consumed their former master with a single spike of biomass through the mans chest. Alex back-flipped away from the second rogue and let the blades from his last victim fall to the ground before closing the small holes in his chest and back.

"Let's see if I've got this right." Alex formed two miniature versions of his Blade on each arm, he used the left blade to intercept an attack from the remaining warrior, and the right to cleave the man in two at the waist. As the second warrior was melting into him, Alex slammed his left blade into the ground, the blade resurfaced right in front of the second rogue and extended further in a keyed down parody of the Groundspike, the man only had enough time to gurgle for a moment before he was consumed.

"That worked rather well." Alex smirked and looked at the female rogue, one of the only three bandits left. "Wouldn't you agree." He had already retracted his left arm and shifted both limbs back to normal.

The remaining bandits did the smart thing, they ran. Well they tried to run anyway, didn't get very far. Alex caught the rogue easily, she was fast for a normal human, but it just didn't compare to a being that could run up to one hundred miles per hour if he really tried. She put up more of a fight then her deceased companions, but that wasn't really saying much, she did last more then a few seconds though, so that was good.

It didn't take long to find the leader and his girlfriend, they were giving off a lot of heat after all. They were still running when Alex landed about ten feet ahead of them, that shook them quite a bit.

"What are you!" The man paled. "Oh no...no no no NO! Not Darkspawn, not that, oh Maker please no." The mage didn't look very good either. In a panic she hurled a very overcharged fireball at Alex.

"Wow! I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a surprise. Guess I'll have to keep an eye on people like you wont I?" Alex had dodged the spell easily enough, but it was nice to know that he hadn't somehow misinterpreted the memories of the people he had already eaten, she was a mage, magic was real, surprising, but still not the most unbelievable thing he had seen or heard.

The leader, though that wasn't really accurate anymore, not much of a group with just the two of them, pushed her away and gestured for her to run, while doing that he put his shield between them and Alex and tightened his grip on his mace. Alex decided that he would end this fast, no reason to drag it out, and besides that, a mage could really hurt him if they hit him with the right spell. He was sure half of the thoughts the other bandits had about magic were exaggerated, but even then it was not something he wanted to have to fight for an extended period of time.

Alex's Blade cleaved the man, and his shield, in two, he died instantly. The mage, blood mage apparently, was not happy about this, she cast a spell and the blood from her dead lover lanced up from the ground and impaled Alex in various random directions, this was annoying but not a problem, Alex just absorbed the blood, much to the mages horror.

Alex covered the distance between them quickly, and severed her spinal cord, all she felt was a quick tingling sensation before she died and was consumed. Alex decided to find a better place to go and think about what he had learned, sorting through the memories wouldn't take long, but it wouldn't be good to be found standing around on a blood covered stretch of road.

Alex first looked into the magic, he found immediately that he could not use it himself, he didn't dream after all, and even if he did it wouldn't have anything to do with the Fade. Without a connection to the dream world Alex couldn't get the energy that acted as the spark that let mages use the mana that they naturally had in them, though most didn't realize that that was how it worked apparently. So he set any further study of that aside for later.

Darkspawn, from what little the bandits knew, they were a lot like Redlight. "Guess that means Greene was the Archdemon? Well, she looked the part near the end, can't say she didn't have a reason for doing what she did though. Okay, so Darkspawn should be killed on sight, problem; I have no real idea what they look like, have to find out. Mages can really hurt me, the more powerful the mage the more damage they could do; conclusion, don't piss off any mages, not unless I intend to kill them anyway." Alex killed and consumed the last of the pack of rabid wolves that had been bothering him for the last two minutes. "If any of those rumors are even half true I should be able to find quite a few Darkspawn down south, along with almost every soldier in Ferelden. That can wait, for now I should try to blend in better."

Three minutes later Alex had shifted his 'clothes' into a reasonable imitation of what would be considered normal for someone in that particular kingdom, though to be honest only the basic style had changed, otherwise he was wearing the same thing as before.

"Now! Onward to Adventure!" Alex sprinted off down the road at almost fifty miles per hour, it couldn't hurt to be enthusiastic about his rather odd situation. He had taken all the money from the bandits and the two best swords, along with a few other usefull little things, just in case.

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><p>When Alex arrived in Lothering he found it about three minutes from being overrun by the Darkspawn. "Well I can't just stand by and watch I guess." He drew the two swords he had acquired about twenty-four hours earlier, and ran, at a reasonable pace, down into the village.<p>

When he had the chance, while no one was looking that is, Alex consumed a few of the psychotic things, they didn't taste good. _"Wow. Can't say I expected that, best not talk about it."_ Alex now knew most everything about the creatures, he decided to keep it to himself and just see how things went. This did not mean he was going to stop killing them of course.

Alex eventually ran out of people to help, everyone had either escaped, or been killed. He then spotted a few heat signatures a ways outside town, most were Darkspawn, but a few were human. Alex leaped into the air and glided toward his new focus.

By the time Alex caught up the humans had all found each other, they were surrounded and more Darkspawn were coming from every direction. One of them, a mage, had just tried to protect a woman, her mother he guessed, from an Ogre, it didn't work very well.

The Ogre swung it's arm, intent on killing the pathetic human, it did not expect to meet any resistance, and it didn't, but it didn't hit the human either. Alex slid to a stop and set the girl and her mother down on their feet, he then turned and dashed back toward the still confused Ogre while drawing his swords. Alex kept it distracted long enough for the first mages' sister and brother to deal with the lesser Darkspawn and come to help finish it off, he could have killed it himself, but that would have got more attention then he wanted.

"Thank you, if it weren't for you..."

"No problem, happy to help really." Alex smiled, he managed to look happy and tired rather then amused and somewhat hungry. "Alex, Alex Mercer." He held out his right hand after putting away one of his swords.

The older mage took his hand and introduced herself. "Marian Hawke"

Alex had to suppress a shudder, that name was going to mean a lot some day, he didn't know how he knew, but it was there. "Pleasure to meet you, but we'll have to save the rest of the intro's for later." Alex pulled his second sword back out and turned to the advancing Darkspawn.

The others followed his example, but before anything else could happen a roar split the air and drew all eyes to an enormous dragon on the cliff above them. "Now a dragon, could this get any more interesting?" Alex whispered this to himself.

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><p><strong>Other then Alex being present, and Bethany being alive, the rest occurs as in game until the group arrives in Kirkwall. Before getting on the ship that takes them there, Alex has an odd discussion with Flemeth about what the two of them are and what he intends to do, but following his earlier decision to not anger magic users, if he can help it, Alex will do his best to stay on her good side, or at least on her "I'm not going to try to make your life a living hell" side. Once in Kirkwall, the effect Alex has already had begins to change the way the story goes significantly, obviously with all three siblings around things will happen very differently then in game. I used my female mage as the base for Hawke because that is the character I am farthest along with right now, but I don't own the game so I can't really say what could happen after a certain point. With the character in question, the female mage, I went with the smart-ass answers most of the time unless it would have obviously been a bad idea to do so, so this Hawke is kind of snarky and sarcastic, but generally a good person and will try to avoid the "Kill everything and loot the bodies later" option in most situations, though there are a few exceptions to this.<strong>

**Alex doesn't want people to look at him to much, while he has the skills and knowledge of three low level warriors and a blood mage, without the use of the mage's magic, he is playing the part of a rogue, he ate three of them to, so he should do his best not to be seen if it can be helped. Even if Hawke doesn't ask him to go with the group at certain points Alex would likely follow them anyway, so he should be around no matter what point the story is at, but he shouldn't let everyone know he was around until after the fact. Even if he doesn't let them know he's there, Alex can still help the group, he should be really good at stealth if you think about it.**

**Whether or not Alex ends up in a relationship would be up to anyone who decides to continue this story, you can of course switch things around a bit if you want, but if you did decide to put Alex in a relationship it should be with a girl, Alexander Mercer was interested, physically if not emotionally, in girls, so I would think that that probably would carry over, since other then being an all around better person then the original, Alex acted very similar to Alexander. Seriously, I don't see how people decide that a walking blob of viral goo that has only shown emotions, beyond rage, towards women, would be interested in men as anything besides something to kill in a fairly gruesome fashion.**

**Alex cannot use magic, yet. The problem is that he doesn't have a connection to the Fade, this means he can't spark mana, and therefore can't use magic no matter how many mages he eats, he can add their knowledge and mana to himself, but he can't use it without a connection to the Fade, which he can't establish on his own, and he definitely doesn't want to tell anyone what he is and ask them for help. If he could use magic then he could set up the link himself, but that would mean he didn't need it, the point is that at the moment Alex can not cast spells. Given time Alex could find a way to spark mana using a different method then drawing power from the Fade, there are plenty of worlds in fiction that use magic of the same type as Dragon Age but don't have to draw a spark from a dream world, so Alex could just think up something like what one of those worlds use. Alex does not have to gain the ability to use magic, but if you wanted to you could give it to him.**

**If you can make it work, Alex can tell someone, not the whole group obviously what he is, though he would have to edit it a bit so that they would get it. Basically, he could tell them that he is a magic experiment that went well beyond what the person responsible intended, he could even tell them that his creator intended to make an army of super monsters and try some kind of contrived world domination plot, and that since he didn't like the idea, he killed his creator, destroyed all his research, and then headed off into the world to see what life was like.  
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**This is supposed to get people to think about crossovers like this, and maybe get someone to continue this story. Alex should be the center of the story, but he should not be the center of the other characters attention, he chose to follow Hawke because he felt that she/he was important, and since he has nothing better to do he decided to watch history unfold. Alex is a scientist, that should be somewhat important in any story involving him, if someone needs a miracle and magic isn't the answer, then just go to Mercer, if mAd ScIEncE can't help you then nothing can.**

I will not likely continue this, but you never know. I will likely use the same first few paragraphs in other one-shot type stories that involve Alex going to different worlds, there will be changes, but don't be surprised to see the same beginning more then once.

Hob the Repetitive Robot


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